By 1965 the great Willie Mays was on auto-pilot - year after year he paused briefly in the middle of the summer to take his place on the NL All-Star team and at the end of the season his name would be found in the top 10 for home runs, RBI and average. As his contemporaries remarked with respectable awe, no player was more consistently excellent year-after-year as Willie Mays.

1965, one of the years this superb game used bat dates to, Mays hit a career high 54 home runs and was voted the National League's Most Valuable Player. He also reached the milestone of 500 career home runs that summer, at the time just the four other men in the history of the game had hit that many. He just missed repeating the NL MVP honor in 1966 when he came in a close third in the voting. It was no surprise in 1970 when the Sporting News chose Willie Mays as the “Player of the Decade”.

Offered here is a bat that was dated to the 1965-98 seasons of use by Willie Mays. This bat displays outstanding use and is un-cracked. There are ball marks, black ink transfers and slight checking or grain swelling from repeated ball contact on the barrel. Other markings include red and blue transfer marks on the top barrel and barrel ends. The handle has a light coating of pine tar and the model number “S2” is stamped on the knob. Also on the knob is Mays’ number “24” that has been handwritten in black marker, along with the bat’s length “34” that has been handwritten in black. A perfect Willie Mays gamer that comes with a LOA from PSA/DNA (1B09058) for the game use and has been given its highest grade of GU 10.

Auction Notepad